NORWALK — Director of Finance Robert O. Barron will present to the Board of Estimate and Taxation on Monday evening his recommended operating budget to run city schools and services for fiscal year 2016-17.

Mayor Harry W. Rilling, ex-officio member of the tax board, outlined the broad priorities for the budget.

“I have met with Mr. Barron and his staff along with (Bruce) Kimmel, chairman of the Common Council’s Finance Committee and council president,” Rilling said Friday. “We have reviewed the proposed numbers and are confident we will be able to present a budget that will not only fund the critical programs of the city but will be fair to our taxpayers. We will discuss this in greater detail as the budget is presented to the Board of Estimate and Taxation on Monday evening.”

The tax board is scheduled to meet Monday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m., in Room 231 of City Hall, 125 East Ave.

The finance director’s budget presentation marks the beginning of the Board of Estimate and Taxation three-month effort to craft a 2016-17 operating budget. The budget will govern spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

School spending consumes more than half of the city’s annual operating budget.

Last month, the Board of Education approved a proposed operating budget totaling $177 million, which represents a 3.9 percent increase over the current budget.

Rilling and Kimmel have stressed that they have been working closely with Barron and Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski to find a way to fully fund the Board of Education’s budget request while minimizing the impact on taxpayers.

That could be done by tapping into the school board’s insurance fund reserves, according to officials.

“Because we have deposited a lot of money in the insurance trust fund and saved a lot more money than we anticipated in contract negotiations with our unions, we have reserves in that account that can be responsibly drawn down over a period of years to help absorb this bubble of spending over the next few years,” Board of Education Michael W. Lyons said last week.

Barron’s presentation of his recommended budget Monday evening will set the stage for the tax board to develop the actual budget. On Feb. 22, tax board members will begin a series of budget workshops at which they’ll review department spending requests line by line.

The Common Council’s role in the process will rest with setting an overall expenditures cap for the tax board to work toward when crafting the budget.

Council members are scheduled to set the cap on Feb. 23 but will have an opportunity to amend it April 12.

A public hearing on the budget has been scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, March 23, in Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Ave.

The Board of Estimate has until May 2 to adopt the 2016-17 operating budget and set final property tax rates.

For the current fiscal year, the tax board adopted a $326,989,609 operating budget that represented a roughly 3 percent increase over previous year spending and boosted the mill rate by about 1.6 percent.